Diggory Venn

(The Reddleman)

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Damon Wildeve Wi r riag
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Eustacia

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Eustacia’s
Grandfather Clym Yeobright
Book 1
The Three Women
• The Story opens in a Heathland, a dry rough landscape of Western
England. The name of the place is imaginary, Egdon Heath. Apart from
an ancient landscape, there is a road built by Romans that cut across
Egdon.
Main Characters
• Egdon Heath: An old landscape, with one roman road, completely
undeveloped with native people celebrating native rituals.
• But this story is about some sophisticated people. Lets learn about
them a little
• Eustacia Vye: A woman who was born in a comparatively urban place
but is forced to stay in Egdon with her grandfather. She hates to live
here and always dreams of going to Paris. She does not have any fear
of darkness and roams about the heath. People feel that she is like a
witch.
• Why does she roam about at night? One reason is a character called
Damon Wildeve.
Damon Wildeve
• He is a tricky character. He is educated, an engineer, but he has
settled in Egdon as an innkeeper. His house is an inn. He is a real
charming guy but with very shady intensions.
• Eustacia Vye feels Damon can take her away from this dreadful lonely
place.
• But Damon gets tangled with another woman. He promises to marry
her
• A woman named Thomasin Yeobright.
• Thomasin and Damon can not get married due to some licence issue
in the twon where they went to get married. So Thomasin has to
return. But Damon left her there.
• She returned in the van of a reddleman, a man whose trade was to
apply colour or reddle to mark sheep. The name of this reddleman
was Diggory Venn. In fact this man was not originally a reddleman. He
was a milkman’s son and was always in love with Thomasin but
because of difference in status he could not get her hand in marriage.
He became a reddleman in grief. His face had turned red by over use
of the dye. It was as if he was trying to hide his face and his grief.
• Thomasin: a very sweet and innocent girl. She lived with her aunt Mrs
Yeobright.
• When she returned from that postponed wedding, her aunt decided
to go and talk to Damon and ask for an explanation. She nnever
wanted Thomasin to marry Damon, she wanted her to marry her own
son Clym. But since Thomasin chose Damon and everybody knew
about the wedding, she thought that it was best for Thomasin if the
marriage happened and succeeded
• That night, after getting rid of these women, Damon sees that a
bonfire is lit far away on Rainbarrow. This was Eustacia’s signal.
• Eustacia’s grandfather had informed her about cancellation of
wedding.
• Eustacia feels that Damon still loves her
• It was Guy Fawkes Day, everyone lit bonfires. She did too. Earlier it
was a signal for Damon to come and visit her.
• He came that night too.
• Both speak with passion and pride. As if it was about who owned
whom, who had greater power.
• Damon leaves. Things are kept hanging.
• The natives, while celebrating bonfire speak of a young man, the son of Mrs
Yeobright, who is in the diamond business and is scheduled to return to
Egdon.
• Clym Yeobright.
• Shortly before Christmas, Eustacia overhears Sam and Humphrey talking with
her grandfather about Clym Yeobright's impending arrival home from Paris,
where he is employed as the manager to a diamond merchant. 
• This man is fed up with city life, wishes to return to Egdon and work on
educating the natives. His mother does not want that. Yet he comes.
• For Eustacia, he offers a better alternative to Damon. She felt he could
actually make her dream come true.
Book 2 Arrival
• Clym arrives in Egdon
• It is Christmas. The natives plan to perform a Christmas play at
Yeobright’s house. Eustacia convinces Charlie to let her take his place
wearing a costume for one night.
• In exchange of holding her hand for 15 minutes.
• Eustacia plays the Turkish knight.
• Breaks up with Wildeve through a letter which Reddleman delivers
• Thomasin gets married to Wildeve after a bit of a family drama
Book 3 the fascination
• Clym plans to open a school in Egdon
• At this juncture Eustacia manages to entice Clym
• They kiss in a full moon night, but it was also a night of eclipse.
• and they get married. Mrs Yeobright was not happy at all. Clym and
Eustacia go on to live in a house away from his mother.
• In their small cottage at Alderworth, Eustacia's hopes were still bound
up in her dreams of Paris. 
• But Clym started to have severe eye infection
• Clym was going almost blind.
• Eustacia grew depressed.
• Clym wanted her to have some fun and she went on to attend some local
festivity. Guess who she meets there? Damon Wildeve
• They start dancing. Old sparks renewed in Damon’s heart.
• The reddleman comes to know this and secretly watches her house at night
• He tells Mrs Yeobright that she should go and patch up with her son to
make situation better
• She decides to pay a visit. A fatal visit
• Near their house Mrs Yeobright sees two men. One her son whom she
sees entering the house, the other, she can not recognize, enters the
same house through a backdoor. This was Damon Wildeve.
• By the time she reaches the house Clym was fast asleep.
• Eustacia was busy talking to Damon about how unhappy she is and
hears a knocking. She also hears clym say “mother”. Clym was actually
dreaming, but Eustacia thought he had opened the door.

• Damon leaves in haste and by the time Eustacia returns to the room,
Clym’s mother was gone
• She was bit by an adder on her way back home.
• At his small cottage, Clym awakens from his slumber and tells
Eustacia about his dream. Eustacia says nothing about his mother's
attempted visit earlier in the day. Clym decides he must go to Blooms-
End at once. On his journey across the heath, Clym discovers his
mother lying exhausted and almost unconscious.

• Clym had rushed to her at the last moment but she could not survive.
The Discovery
• Meanwhile Thomasin gives birth to a child.
• By a turn of events Clym learns from a native boy Johny Nunsuch that
his mother was coming back from his house not going to it on the day
she died. That means she was not allowed in by his wife! And she had
kept it a secret!
• After a violent fit of rage where Clym smashes on his desk and
questions Eustacia if it was Wildeve who made her stop his mother
that day from entering the house, Eustacia refuses to answer.
• They are separated. Eustacia goes to live with her grandfather
• Eustacia’s grandfather was away then. She was in company of that
boy Charlie again who really took care of her. He even hid the guns
with which she wished to kill herself in depression.
• And it is then that a stine splashed into the pond.
• Damon Wildeve meets her and they plan to escape. Damon had come
by some money and he said he would help her run away to Budmouth
from where she can go to Paris.
• Then comes 6th of November
• Clym had written a letter to Eustacia, he was perhaps wishing to let
old things rest. But a native boy, Timothy delivers it to the grandfather
who does not immediately give it to Eustacia.
• She leaves around midnight. A stormy midnight.
• In some place nearly Johny Nunsuch’s mother Susan burns Eustacia’s
wax idol trying to end her witchcraft.

• Damon also leaves his house leaving half his fortune for his wife and
daughter
• Thomasin comes to tell Clym about her missing husband.
• Clym and Diggory Venn reach where Wildeve was waiting.
• A body splashes into water, Wildeve takes a dive, clym also does so
and soon the reddleman jumps in.
• Eustacia and Damon die that night.
• Clym barely survives.
Chapter 6 Aftercourses.
• The darkness is gone, well almost.
• The novel reaches its end and we see Clym ending up being a
preacher
• Thomasin happily married to the Reddleman.

• And that teenage boy Charlie who loved Eustacia so much?

• Clym gave him a memento, a lock of Eustacia’s hair, may be he was
the best person to preserve the memory of this most enigmatic
hedonistic and wild woman ever created in fiction.
Pope’s depiction of Belinda
Supernatural Machinery
Pope’s depiction of 18th C Society
Critique of feminine follies (focus on Belinda’s depiction plus other
women too)
As a mock epic.
Game of ombre.